Everywhere a Hack-Hack-Hack
The Guardian — Clinton campaign says data program accessed in cyber-attack on Democrats
This follows on the report yesterday that the DCCC had been hacked – an act Reuters said US intelligence officials had attributed to Russians as well.
Unknown is what was being searched for and what, if anything, was taken. Unknown entity got in and got something maybe for unknown reasons and use — aha, must be Russia!
Half the big brains in Silicon Valley are “with her.” Her campaign coffers (and the affiliated coffers at the HVF) are stuffed with cash. Yet, somehow, the woman that is the most experienced candidate for President ever can’t manage a campaign that’s not highly vulnerable to computer hackers.
Someone’s being set up. The narrative is getting too pat. The DNC hack and release of emails was real. That’s known. By whom? Guess they’re going to keep running with “the Russians” for a while. But let’s back up a bit.
By mid-December, Bernie Sanders was gaining traction with the Democratic primary electorate. About the point in an election cycle when more people begin to pay attention. He had a solid lead in NH that hadn’t waned after months of the HRC campaign spending money there to beef up her operation and running ads. The next (fourth) debate was to take place on the awesome debate viewing time of Saturday, December 19. (Six days before Christmas.) Then POW!
On Friday, December 18, Bernie Sanders’s campaign was locked out of the DNC voter files system amid allegations that his IT operation had gained unauthorized access to HRC voter information. Sanders had no choice but to fire the alleged malefactor because a full assessment could be made. The DNC vendor claimed that a faulty patch had opened a window that allowed opposing campaigns to peek into the records of others campaigns. It was discovered and corrected within a few hours and assurances were given that no unauthorized user could download and/or print stuff that they could all of a sudden pull up on their screens. Team Clinto screamed FOUL! Bad, bad Bernie.
Note: unknown what was could have been seen, nothing could have been taken, but there were some logs that indicated something, something. (The faulty patch was to the entire voter files system and therefore, team Clinton had the same ability to peek at team Sander info, but by omission, we’re assured that that didn’t happen.)
Was it true? The Sander’s lead IT employee had several weeks earlier reported security issues to the DNC. We might someday get more information on this. Given the relatively short period of time from then to the end of the primary season, Sanders team couldn’t afford to expend sufficent time or money on this. And it all went completely away months later when Sanders withdrew his lawsuit.
However, from a public relations perspective, it did put a crimp in Sanders campaign. It gave Bernie his first shiner. One that healed, but momentum lost is rarely fully regained.
Wonder what was being said in the DNC and HRC campaign emails during those thirty-six hours in December. Of course, even if there’s some juicy bits in there, to release them now would raise too many new questions.
The DNC emails that were released put both the DNC and Clinton in a bad enough light, that they needed the deflection of an identifiable nefarious enemy to pin it on. With Sanders no longer in a position to be their effective punching bag, they went big and long. Allegations that it’s Putin are good enough because the MSM loves them some Putin bashing and can responsibly note in the small print that they are allegations and not proof. And Russia can’t prove the null hypothesis. Fantastic.
The only alternative was to blame Trump and the RNC directly. Except that might give the impression that they were competent at something. And anyway, Clinton is going to win in a landslide and no reason to risk decreasing that yuuge winning margin by even half a percentage point.
(Note: Not saying that Putin didn’t do it. But if every time the USG made an allegation that the Russian done did it over the past forty odd years and I had gone short on that, I would have lost a lot of money. Seriously, once HRC’s private server became public, should it be surprising that hackers here, there, everywhere would think that it might be cool to try to break into the servers of various political organizations? Maybe the Chinese took the RNC, RCCC, and oh forget it, Trump is operating his campaign with a Pachinko machine.)
The Paper of Record weighs in — Clinton Campaign Computers Are Said to Be Hacked, Apparently by Russians
Said to Be Hacked
Apparently by Russians
Times is really hedging on this one. In the headline instead of buried in paragraph three. Is this a tell?